Reader mail! Extra points

In 1971 the Bears had two non-kickers score PATs: Bobby Douglass on a rush and Dick Butkus on a pass from Douglass. Douglass was the Bears’ holder on placekicks. Prior to the 2-pt conversion rule in ’94; how many times during the era after the merger (1970-1993) had there been successful PATs by rush or by pass in regular season or post-season games? – James

It happened at least 30 times. (Steve Largent’s 1985 extra point is listed as an uncredited “kick” on Pro-Football-Reference and credited to Norm Johnson in many box scores, so it is possible that there are others that I’ve missed.)

All of these conversions (which counted for 1 point) likely came as the result of botched snaps or holds in field goal formation.

(The last time I know of that a team lined up in a non-kicking formation for a 1-point extra point came in the 1940 Championship Game. The Bears lined up in scrimmage formations after their last two touchdowns, but only because the refs feared that they would run out of footballs, 9 of which had already been kicked into the stands. End zone nets would not be introduced for a while.)

Last game of the regular season.
NE had called timeout up 24-14 with 6 seconds left to set up Steve Grogan’s 1-yard TD, which broke the single-season record for rushing TD by a QB.TB, finishing up an 0-14 season, was not pleased.

Bump! I distinctly remember attending a New York Giants game as a kid where on a PAT, the holder took the snap and just ran into the end zone untouched; not sure if it was a botched snap or a designed fake, but it definitely was a PAT by rush. Game was in the 1987-1991 era, sorry I don't remember more but I was fairly young at the time.

I can't find anything like that happened in a Giants home game during that period (unless it happened in preseason). The closest thing I can find was a fake field goal the 1986 Giants ran against the Packers, but Jeff Rutledge was tackled at the 4 after gaining 18 yards.

November 11, 1962 against the Vikings: “Place Kicker Leclerc, fielding a grounder from center, beat the Vikings to first base for the extra point after the Bears’ second touchdown in the second quarter. Red Grange never revealed more talent than Leclerc did in the open field the Vikings created at left end.” http://i.picpar.com/s3Oc.png

Pro Football Reference incorrectly has this as a kick, but it wouldn’t have shown up in the list above anyway as it happened before 1970.

Dick Butkus had two pass receptions for extra points. One decided a game, the other was more routine. This was a planned play for busted PAT attempts. Butkus would go to a specified corner of the end zone, and whoever recovered was supposed to throw it there, where he, the tallest guy around, could out-jump the defenders. There was no risk, as the defense couldn’t score on a turnover in those days.

A potentially controversial sequence of events occurred late in the second half of the Packers-Falcons game when it appeared that two different players possibly threw punches that could’ve have warranted ejections.